Three Courses in One – Part Six

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Moving into part six of my Three Courses in One discussion (the link will take you to part five which can help you get to any of the earlier ones). Today we will move into the poetry section of these courses. For my face to face classes I had planned four weeks of poetry to coincide with National Poetry Month.

To start I assigned a section of the textbook, and I discussed How to Read a poem as well as the “history” of poetry. There are so many different poems that I could start with (besides those in the textbook), but I do often enjoy using something by Taylor Mali since you can compare text to his performance of the text. We had in class discussions, writing assignments (academic and creative), and I discovered that my poetry “training” served me well in the classroom. I was better able to respond when a rogue question came up. I can study and teach lots of things, but the more you know really can make you a better speaker. This got me thinking about how I could use my poetic world view to teach other topics. That should pop up in other lessons I discuss as I go through other courses.

For week two I called the week The Art of Saying. I focused on thinking about the why of poetic choices. We discussed literary terms such as Denotation and Connotation. Week three was called Poetry Nuts and Bolts. Here I got into more of the literary devices: symbols, simile etc. Quite a few of my day students did their final projects by writing poems. I don’t know if they did that because it was the end of the semester, and they needed to finish their project or because they really wanted to try. Either way, I enjoyed reading their words. One of the activities I developed during this time was using a modified version of the game Scattegories. I think this is a good way to think about avoiding cliche. If I role an S and the topic is pasta do you want to be with everyone else saying spaghetti or are you going to try to find a different word so you get a point where no one else does?

I also talked about forms versus free verse briefly during the third week. I developed my linebreak exercise during this course. I won’t share it in full detail (sorry!) cause I use it for my online classes as well, but it gives you a chance to think about why an author chooses to place words in specific places.

Week four was called Sounds and Symbols. We talked about sounds and word play. Depending on the class I could go into a variety of activities. Some could be more basic or we could get into more advanced lessons thinking about how sounds actually effect you physically, and how you can use that in writing. Discussions on rhyme and rhythm also went in well here.

I’m already running out of space! But, I want to mention a few things on covering poetry in these classes. First off I was able to have more engaged discussions with my day class. Discussions were where I really saw the differences between the two classes. My day class had a better grasp on how to analyze and discuss whereas my night class either struggled or just didn’t have the desire to go beyond a base consideration of the work we were doing. I’ll address this a bit more in a later post when I talk about the final results of the class.

When I had the online class later on I only spent two weeks on poetry with them. They used the poems in the textbook along with chapters on how to read/analyze poetry. They had already spent a lot of time with literary terms so I think their ability to discuss poetry had a stronger foundation. They discussed the ones in the book for a week, and then the second week they had to do a written response. The textbook had a poetry and paintings section which I decided to use. They could either write an academic essay about how a particular presented poem and painting worked (or didn’t) together, or they could choose a painting of their own to respond to via poetry. The revisions of these were similar to prior revisions. If they did the academic they had to research and add sources. If they did the poem response I helped them revise, but I also asked them to reflect on the process of responding via poetry as part of their revision.

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully I can finish up next time with the mixed genre section before moving on to another class.

Anyone recall their early studies of poetry? In class or on their own? Is there anything you wished you had covered? Feel you missed? Best assignments etc?

Monday Movies

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Welcome to June everyone! My first blog of the month will be a movie chat post to catch up on what I’ve been watching, and I always love to hear what other people are viewing.

  • First up pulls from the small screen. I watched the show Slings and Arrows which is about a Canadian Shakespearean Festival. I really loved this show. If you can find it on Netflix or if it is still airing in re-runs on cable give it a watch. 
  • On the bigger screen I continue to watch foreign films, especially Japanese films, which included one titled Departures. I have to tell you, this movie was very moving. Just loved it. Great music in it as well.
  • Back to the small screen, and I watched the first season of the cartoon Adventure Time that is on Netflix now. I have watched episodes of AT off and on, but it was fun to actually watch them in order. I’m hoping they add other seasons soon. AT is a tricky cartoon for me to recommend as I can easily recommend it for adults, but harder to decide at what age it is actually appropriate for children since early on the characters solve their problems with mild cartoon violence, however, the characters grow and change so perhaps one to watch and discuss with kids?
  • I actually thought I might do a whole post on the next film: Bully. This is a must watch for everyone, I think. It is on Netflix, but of course available through other means. I’m hoping to work something about the anti-bully movement into my classroom in the Fall. Now to come up with ideas for that…
  • For a very unrelated small screen viewing I watched the first season of the Netflix sponsored TV show Hemlock Grove. I could actually do a whole post about this show as well, but I think I’d end up babbling. Cons: Nudity, Sometimes a little over-the-top with gore. Pros: Believable characters in unusual circumstances, plots that move two steps forward and then have you second guessing, slow pace (for some this could be a con as well).
  • I’m going to do a quick mention of a second Japanese movie called Nobody Knows. This is one of those movies that kept me up the night after I watched it. The movie is definitely a sad one, but it told its story so beautifully that I’m still glad I watched it. If you do watch it, however, I don’t suggest googling the story behind the movie (based on a true story) cause that’ll make you madder!

I’ve actually caught up most of my movie watching list, but I’ll have a few more things to add next week, I’m sure, because once you take things off a list you are almost always adding more back in :)

Make Friday Write

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Sorry I wasn’t at the computer yesterday my friends, but I’m back for a Make Friday Write posting instead of Thursday Poem Share. My schedule for next week looks good for me to post on Thursday. Here is my poem for this week. Feel free to leave your poems (or other types of writing) and/or links to them in comments so we can all join in the conversation about our work. A week from today I will take down any poems (including my own).

– Ok, down a day early :)

This poem has only been through a few drafts in my notebook because I did take the long holiday weekend. We had a family get together at our house Saturday, and then Sunday I drop up to Pittsboro, NC (about 2 hours away) to read as part of the NC Poetry Society Series. I love going to this reading (three poets together without an open mic in a lovely bookstore), but I was slightly disappointed that I didn’t have any book sales this time. My books have been out for a while though so that may change when the new one comes out in September. I did get to hear some terrific poetry, and I had some terrific conversations with other writers which made the trip more than worthwhile. Also we visited with some family before heading back.

I’m gonna squeeze in a quick movie mention here because it fits in with poetry. I watched LEMON THE MOVIE on Netflix which follows the spoken word artist Lemon Anderson as he works to get a new presentation of his work onto the stage. One of my favorite things that he said (besides his poetry) in the film was, “peace of mind is defined by space.” Nice.  I decided to order the book that his play was based on. I love spoken word and other types of performance, but there is a part of me (comparing to my reading) that wishes other forms of poetry had a larger place in the pop culture/consumer world.

Three Courses in One – Part Five

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I am going to continue these Wednesday teaching posts throughout the summer, but I may also continue them into the fall as I will be teaching again! I was a finalist for a full-time lecturer position at UNC-Charlotte, and as offered a chance to teach part-time in the First-Year Writing Program so I will be teaching comp 1 and 2 again :)

Now to continue with my discussions of Eng 113/131. Here is a link to the part four post which call also help you link back to all the earlier ones.

When I taught Eng 113 in person I had planned three weeks to cover stage/screen. I love plays and movies. I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but I was in the drama club. I also competed in speech events via my high school’s debate team. I even acted in two small plays in college. I was even a theater education major for a while so why was it difficult for me to teach the drama section of the course?

I have to blame part of this on the textbook. I was trying to stick to the textbook, and the plays in the book were just BLAH so I found myself only covering, briefly, one of the 10 minute plays in the book before focusing more on film/TV as a way to discuss the literary conventions involved with drama. The most successful part of this discussion came out a bit of desperation as I didn’t feel I had enough to cover so I copied part of the book “Freakonomics” and then showed that portion of the documentary. This allowed the class to discuss adaptation. Whew. Learned a lot, and as I presented literature courses later (future posts) I gave more thought to bringing outside material to the drama discussion if the textbook didn’t hold my interest. I also came up with a fun writing prompt. I brought in sets of photos that were somewhat related, and asked the students to write dialogue/scenes using those pictures. They could do so alone or in groups. The face to face classes also had some writing assignments and such do as with their original syllabus.

My online class read about plays and then read “Antigone.” They responded well to the play, and their writing assignment for the second week of stage/screen was to take something about “Antigone” (characters, plot, themes), and apply it to the TV/film of their choice. I loved reading these! One of my favorites compared and contrasted characters with the TV show “Gossip Girl.” Right after the stage/screen week my online class also turned in their first revision with peer review and then had spring break before coming back  to discuss poetry.

Next week I’ll dig into the poetry section. See you there.

More Video

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I essentially took a three day weekend like many people this weekend. For me this also meant I took some time away from written words. I didn’t write or read anything specific. I just visited with people, and watched TV. Today, I’m gonna catch up on some of what I’ve been watching. Oh, and side note, I will be “out of the office” so to speak on Thursday so I’ll post poem share on Friday.

  • First up is the foreign film Ocean Heaven (available on Netflix). This is such a simple movie, but is so beautiful. Could be perhaps call it kind of poetic? I highly recommend this one. 
  • Next up was the documentary style film Kumare. I almost stopped watching this one because I felt a bit uncomfortable with what the filmmaker was going to do, but I’m glad I kept watching because I think the filmmaker (as well as those filmed) definitely learn something important about themselves before the project is over.
  • On the smaller screen The Office recently had its season finale, and they did a really great job with it. I won’t say much about it in case anyone still has it on their TiVo or in case they are thinking about starting to watch all 9 seasons, but the writers and cast succeeding in closing the show out in a very fitting way. I can’t say that for every series that I’ve watched and loved!
  • We haven’t actually been out to the movies a lot in 2013, but we did see Star Trek: Into the Darkness in the theater. I know there are a lot of mixed reviews for the movie, but I enjoyed it. I think it did some interesting things with the characters that plays off the idea of them living in an alternate time line from the original cast. I just hope that the next movie they do deviates even further, and allows the new cast to take on some new stories.
  • This next one probably would have fit in better to my last movie round-up because it deals with race. The Many Trials of Darryl Hunt is a documentary that follows just what the title suggests. An important one to watch.
  • And since I do like to connect things I also watched the documentary Erasing Hate about a former skinhead who wishes to move away from that lifestyle which includes having tattoos removed. I think this is an important story to cover, but I’m not as sure it was executed as well (the way the story was told) as some other documentaries I’ve seen recently.
  • To finish off this list of somewhat connected things perhaps I’ll mention another documentary that raises questions about race, identity etc. The documentary Somewhere Between follows several young girls/women of Chinese ancestry who were adopted by American families.

I still have a few items on my recently watched list so maybe I’ll weave some more of these in in a later post. Anyone else watch anything interesting lately?

Running the Numbers 2012

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This week I pulled the last two submissions I had outstanding for 2012. Here are my notes on trying to seek publication in 2012:

  • I submitted 45 packets of poems to various journals. I had 5 acceptances. That means I had 11% accepted. This is way down from 2011 and 2010 but in those two years I also submitted a lot more. This percentage is more in line with 2007 – 2008 etc when I submitted less. I submitted a lot in 2010 and 2011. 
  • Of those packets I sent out the vast majority were to journals that are supposedly harder to get into. I had decided I would pursue larger journals in 2012, and I’m continuing that practice in 2013. I am not going after them simply because they are bigger, but because they are the journals I enjoy reading. I did get a good amount of personal rejections from bigger journals so I also see that as a success as well.
  • In 2012 I was submitting my third full length poetry collection and it was accepted for publication by Aldrich Press for a release in 2014. I submitted it 13 times and, while it was never a finalist in any of those contests/reading periods, (that I know of) I did receive two personal comments which was nice, and different, from other years I’ve submitted books.
  • Last year I also submitted the revised version of my academic thesis three times before it was accepted for publication. It will appear this year. I haven’t really worked much on prose (besides the academic work and this blog) in a while so nothing else to report there except I will have academic essays in a collection coming out later this year. That was a 2012 project as well.
  • I don’t really keep track of numbers on things like book reviews and guest blogs, but I did continue to do some in 2012. I list them under the Non-fiction tab of my publications on this site.

On the surface 2012 appears like a quieter year for me and poetry publication although I did have my last chapbook come out then.

Writing, submitting, and publishing all ebb and flow. 2010 and 2011 were peak years, in some ways, because I had a large volume of work I had previously created. Those pieces found their homes and are in the projects coming out, but my new work is coming slower; these newer poems are finding their homes at a more leisurely pace, and I am totally OK with that.

My 2nd full length collection will be out in September. I have seen the cover art, and I’ve proofed the book so I can’t wait to share that with you guys. I’d also love to hear from any of you regarding your own journeys into the publishing world.